[PD-ot] 64bit OS

[patrice colet]

Hey IOhannes,

IOhannes m zmoelnig a écrit :
> patrice colet wrote:
>> Hello João
>>
>>   So my question is, is there a particular reason for using a 64bit 
>> OS? (given the fact that you are not maintaining binaries)
>
> even though i do not maintain binaries, i *do* maintain (and assert) 
> that my _code_ is fully 64bit compatible.
  I was so happy to download from repository, and compile gem on debian 
SID without having any error last time I tried (last year),
 and I knew that it was because of your work on a 64 OS (thanks!).

> the reason for not providing 64bit binaries is the same a for not 
> providing 32bit binaries (either i don't provide binaries at all like 
> with zexy; or i only do not provide binaries for linux because of 
> dependency issues (like Gem))
>
> that's actually the main reason to run my laptop in native 64bit.
>
> running dual-boot turned out to be a pain in the ass, so i dumped 
> 32bit at some point (though it still eats some disk-space...)
>
 Yes it's not easy to share 32 and 64 bit data, the only solution I'v 
found was about using a chroot32 environment so data uses almost twice 
the amount it should use on hard drive for programs that have to be 
maintained on both resolutions.

 Running a dual boot like that seems so far from possible for me, I 
don't even know how to start a kernel that would share both environments!
>
> other machines i use are running 64studio (which kind of sucks on 32bit).
> unfortunately not all maintainers of source code seem to be as willing 
> to maintain 64bit compatible code as me which still makes it sometimes 
> necessary to run a project in 32bit mode...
>
 If I've understood well, maintaining a 64bit code is just a matter of 
adding a flag and changing  some declarations, it doesn't seem so 
difficult from my newbee coder point of view, is it?

Thank you again for the answers, it might help people to determine 
advantages and inconveniences of running/maintaining 64bit OS.
>
>>  Do you see any improvement in regard of 32bit?
>
> haven't done any comparisions lately. but when i did 3 (or so) years 
> ago, i only remember 64bit being very slightly faster than 32bit when 
> compiling large projects.
>
> mfgadr
> IOhannes